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  • Oris Introduces A Very Purple Aquis, Hamilton Gives Groovy 70s Pan Europ Automatic The Ultimate 70s Color, IWC Slips White Dial Into The Mark XX And Arken Is A Fantastic Dual Time Affordable Watch

Oris Introduces A Very Purple Aquis, Hamilton Gives Groovy 70s Pan Europ Automatic The Ultimate 70s Color, IWC Slips White Dial Into The Mark XX And Arken Is A Fantastic Dual Time Affordable Watch

A edition of It's About Time stuffed with affordable timepieces

Author

Vuk Radic
June 02, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 20 minutes

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. This issue is full of super interesting, super affordable watches. Hope you find your next watch! Also, we’re starting a new giveaway on Monday, let me know if there’s a watch you would like for us to give away (keep it reasonable, please) - just reply to this email, I love reading your messages.

In this issue:

  • Oris Introduces A Very Purple Hölstein Edition 2023 Aquis

  • Hamilton Gives Their Groovy 70s Inspired Pan Europ Automatic The Ultimate 70s Color - Beige

  • IWC Slips White Dial Into The Mark XX

  • Arken Unveils Their Second Act With The Dual-Time Equipped Alterum

  • Isotope Teams Up With Watch Customizer Seconde/Seconde/ For Memento Mori Watch

Today’s reading time: 8 minutes and 27 seconds

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👂What’s new

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For the fourth year in a row, Oris has announced its 2023 Hölstein Edition. Every year on June 1, Oris releases a 250-piece limited edition to celebrate the registration of its company in its hometown of Hölstein, Switzerland, on June 1, 1904. And this year they have for the first time used their Aquis diver for the special edition. And boy, is it special. First of all, it’s the first Aquis with no date. But, more importantly, it has the purpliest purple dial you have ever seen.

Other than the purple dial and lack of a date window, it’s an Aquis. 41.5mm wide, steel case, gray ceramic bezel insert and 300 meter water resistance. Introducing the watch, the co-CEO of Oris said in an interview that the purple as a dial color and a no-date Aquis were options fans have been asking for from Oris. I get that fans were asking for a no-date option. But purple? So many people explicitly asked for a purple dial? While I find that hard to believe, I won’t complain - it looks amazing.

Inside the watch is Oris’ caliber 400 with a five day power reserve, for which Oris promises 10-year service intervals and provides a 10-year warranty. On the caseback, there's Oris Bear diving in his scuba gear.

The watch will be limited to 250 pieces, available on Oris' website from June 1 for CHF 4,000 (~$4,400), a slight premium over the standard Oris Aquis Date Caliber 400. It’s a very nice shade of purple and it’s cool to see Oris have a bit of fun with watches, introducing this after the controversial Kermit Pro Pilot.

2/ 

Let’s say it again, all together - the 70s were the coolest era of watches. I know you don’t agree. I still think they were. And the good people over at the Swatch Group agree with me. That’s why in 2011 they revived the 1971 Pan Europ Chronomatic, which was one of the first Swiss-made Hamilton watches, equipped with the now legendary Calibre 11. The success of that model led Hamilton to add a simplified non-chronograph version in 2014, a day-date Pan Europ Automatic. And now they are putting out two new versions of that watch, both in very 70s colorways - a light green and a beige sunray.

The cushion-shaped steel case is 42mm wide and has a a polished unidirectional rotating bezel with a burgundy aluminium insert, with numerals indicating 5-minute increments, and marked with one-minute differences for the first quarter-hour. Despite the rotating bezel, this is not a diver, as it only has a 50m water resistance.

Other than the new colors, the dial remains the same, with two cutouts at 3 o’clock for the day and date indicators. The rectangular, sloped hour indices (with middle Super-LumiNova stripes) as well bulged-in the inner bezel ring with the minute track are all very 70s. The nickeled hour and minute hands are also coated with Super-LumiNova, and the second hand is lacquered to match the bezel colour and the markings on the dial.

Inside is the H30 movement, based on the ETA C07 series (Powermatic 80) calibre, an evolution of ETA’s 2824-2 calibre. You can get the watches on a green or beige soft touch leather racing-style strap, closed with a pin buckle, with an additional brown or burgundy NATO textile strap, depending on the dial colour.

The watches are now available as non-limited editions, and the price is EUR 1,195.

3/

If you want an IWC pilot’s watch you will go to their boutique, admire the craftsmanship and impressiveness of the Big Pilot, and you will then buy a Mark series watch, because you are likely not built like Arnold Schwarzenegger and can’t pull off a car wheel on your wrist. Ever since 1993, when IWC launched the Mark XII as a replica of the Mark 11 made for the British Royal Air Force, the Mark series has been seen as the entry-level model in the Pilot’s Watch series, and now IWS is releasing an update to last year’s Mark XX with two new silver-white editions.

If the Pilot’s Watch series of IWC often brings to mind the oversized, almost provocative Big Pilot model (and we mean the real one, not the smaller, simpler 43mm version), there’s another watch that, even though more discreet, might be of even greater importance… The Mark series. First introduced as a watch for the pilots of the British Royal Air Force, under codename Mark 11, it has later become one of the most classic series of the brand, with the launch of the Mark XII in 1993, as a replica now also intended to civilian amateurs. Now known as the entry-level model in the Pilot’s Watch series, this no-nonsense watch entered its Mark XX version last year, and IWC now releases two new silvery-white editions.

The Mark XX measures 40mm wide, 10.8mm thick, 49.2mm long and has a screw down crown giving it a water resistance of 100m. Most of the steel case is brushed for a rugged tool-watch look, with a couple of polished accents. As for the dial, no surprises. It’s all very much Mark series, with a clean layout, highly legible markers and tracks and a time-and-date display. The Mark XX brought some minor evolutions, such as slightly redefined numerals and indices improving time reading and contrast. The two new references get silver-plated dials, blackened hands and black tracks – except for the indices marking the quarters, which are white and luminous.

Inside, the Mark XX has the biggest improvement over the predecessor. Instead of the past ETA and Sellita movements, the XX gets the calibre 32111, a movement made by ValFleurier and also used in the recently launched Ingenieur.

When the brand says they are releasing two new references with white dials, they mean that the only difference is what kind of strap you get them on. You can have it on a black leather strap (IW328207) or a 5-link stainless steel bracelet (IW328208).

The new IWC Pilot’s Watch Mark XX White Dial is available now through all priced at EUR 5,700 (incl. taxes) on leather, and EUR 6,800 (incl. taxes) on steel bracelet.

4/

Arken is a U.K.-based microbrand that released its first watch last year. It was a titanium diver called the Instrumentum. It came just in time for summer and as a integrated bracelet sports watch, at the height of the integrated bracelet sports watch craze, it sold out instantly. It’s not that weird that it sold out so fast, considering it had a titanium case, a depth rating of 300 meters and a shockingly low pre-order price of just $500. Here they are, back this year with their second watch and are jumping on another trend bandwagon - the GMT - with their titanium dual-time travel watch called the Alterum.

The Alterum carries over a bunch of the Instrumentum, but this is a much more elegant watch that looks way more expensive than it’s price point. Gone is the aggressive bezel of the diver, replaced by a fixed brushed bezel without any markings. Kind of weird for a GMT… It’s measures 40mm in width, 46mm lug to lug and 13mm in case thickness, but since the bezel is 38mm wide it looks much smaller than it actually is.

Also carried over is the unique handset (although smaller and less aggressive) and distinct hour marker layout intertwined by its own solid track line. Accompanying the handset is a colored lollipop GMT hand and a pair of AM/PM indicators that correspond to each hour hand. The date is at six o’clock and is managed by the screwdown pusher located at four. The main highlight of the Alterum’s dial is its frosted texture, one of which comes in an anthracite gray with an orange GMT hand and another with a black dial and a blue GMT hand. You are completely free to call me crazy, but this watch is giving me Vacheron Overseas "Everest" Dual Time vibes with the orange hand, textured dial, pusher at 4 and even the bracelet.

Inside is a modified Miyota 9015 that the brand calls the ARK-9015DT. And it’s not a slight modification. It has an additional additional 12-hour hand and two AM/PM indicators that work in tandem with each hour hand, which helps a lot since the bezel does not have any markings. The movement also has some peculiarities you won’t see in others. Rotating the hands clockwise moves the entire handset, including the GMT hand, as well as both AM/PM indicator discs. However, moving the handset in the opposite direction will lock the GMT hand and its corresponding AM/PM indicator (left of the dial) allowing you to set the time difference between your local and home times. With the time difference adjusted, you can now adjust the hands moving forward to the correct local time. Since it’s such a weird movement, it can’t exactly be called a caller or a flyer GMT movement, but rather a combination of both.

Arken is offering the Alterum publically via a pre-order with either a grey or a black dial, and both will come on a quick-release nylon strap for $700 on release day (July 1, 2023) or $745 thereafter. Additionally, the brand will offer other versions of the Alterum via a private members-only platform that has been established for those that bought the Instrumentum last year. These include a black dial version with a black cerakoted case and a version with a white dial. While not specifically limited, each of the given colorways will be produced in runs of 200 units, and deliveries are expected to start no earlier than January 2024.

5/

Seconde/Seconde/ is a brand name for Romaric André, a former financial auditor who has in recent year profiled himself as one of the leading vintage watch customizers, known especially for replacing hands with those of his own design. He has worked with a whole slew of brands, including Vulcain, Nivada Grenchen, Louis Erard, Bamford and H. Moser & Cie, creating watches that take the original and update it with fun. His latest collaboration is with the UK based Isotope, a brand known for their strong visual design and accessible prices and together they created a Seconde/Seconde/ version of the Isotope Hydrium dive watch.

The Hydrium comes in a 40mm stainless steel case with a unidirectional bezel, screw down crown, sapphire crystal and 300m water resistance. The dial is a matte black with a raised lacrima in the center of the dial and a railroad-style minute track printed along the periphery in white with small bright green blocks to denote the hour markers. At the top of the dial is Isotope’s original logo, although it has been overhauled by Seconde/Seconde/ and given a number of bright green updates. The actual letters of the Isotope name have been rearranged to spell “OTOPSIE” (autopsy), with green arrows pointing to where the letters would go if the logo were to be printed normally.

While autopsy might sound a bit morbid, the brand points out that this is a memento mori watch, without a skull. Additional reminders of your mortality are the hands. While the hour and minute hand appear in Isotope’s classic i-shaped format, the bright green seconds hand has a shape that mirrors the appearance of a failing heartbeat on an ECG machine.

The new Isotope Hydrium Seconde/Seconde, a limited edition of 50 pieces, is offered on a quick-release soft black leather strap with a signed microblasted steel buckle. Inside is the Swiss Landeron 24 automatic movement, which follows the same core design as the ETA 2824 or Sellita SW200 but better decorated with perlage and Geneva stripes.

The Isotope Hydrium Seconde/Seconde/ is now available from the brand’s website and priced at GBP 900 (excl. taxes).

6/

Despite being made in just 100 pieces and just before the pandemic, the H. Moser & Cie. Streamliner, a luxury sports watch elements with an unusually fluid shape, was a huge hit for the brand. Since January 2020, the Streamliner has evolved into a collection with time-only, tourbillon and perpetual calendar models. It is now time for the Streamliner Flyback Chronograph to undergo a slight update, entering its 2.0 phase.

There aren’t any huge updates here, but still welcome. The originality of this collection is intact, with its rounded curves. 42.3mm in diameter and with a relative thickness of 14mm, it features a cool radially brushed finish on top. The dial, apart from a single detail, hasn’t changed. It retains its fumé funky blue colour, tachymeter scale on the periphery and hands with Globolight inserts. The one detail that has changed is the logo, which is now made using transparent lacquer… almost like a secret signature, a reminder of the pre-eminence of the product.

Inside the case is the same calibre HMC 907, a movement that is also known as the AgenGraphe and that has been developed by talented movement maker Agenhor. The architecture, an automatic column-wheel chronograph with an innovative horizontal clutch with a friction wheel (to avoid any issues when the teeth intermesh and reduce unwanted jerks), is the same as before, but the power reserve is now boosted at 72 hours. It has been refreshed with new decoration, including Moser stripes angled at 45° and anthracite grey rhodium plating on the bridges and main plate.

Now available and part of the permanent collection, the Streamliner Flyback Chronograph Automatic Funky Blue 2.0 is priced at CHF 45,000.

🫳On hand

Our selection of the best reviews we stumble upon

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⚙️Watch Worthy

A look at an off beat, less known watch you might actually like

The Tool Watch Co. Diver will be available as of today through the company’s Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign. During this period, you’ll be able to order the watch for US$295, and after that, the Diver will cost US$500. Even at its regular retail price, I think this watch delivers a lot of value for its money. But especially at that lower introduction price, it feels like an absolute steal. A titanium dive watch with an automatic movement, 300m water resistance, a sapphire crystal, a very decent titanium bracelet…should I go on? I think that’s really impressive for less than $300!

⏲️Wait a minute

A bunch of links that might or might not have something to do with watches. One thing’s for sure - they’re interesting

👀Watch this

One video you have to watch today

From time to time I feature Chinese watches in the newsletter. Some, if not most, of them carry the stigma of being Chinese, meaning they are of low quality. While there are undoubtedly fantastic Chinese watchmakers, what do you get from a really cheap Chinese tourbillon? Keep in mind this video is sponsored by the brand that is disassembled, but it’s 30 minutes wrong and breaks everything down so you can see for yourself what you get.

💵Pre-loved precision

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